The Webb Space Telescope just captured a transfixing image of Wolf-Rayet 140, a binary star system in our galaxy surrounded by concentric rings of dust.
The star system has issued more than 17 dust shells out into space over the past 130 years.
The Webb Space Telescope took the two mid-infrared images above in July 2022 (left) and September 2023 (center).
As you can see from the blown-up inset image (right), the dust shells have expanded outwards considerably in just 14 months.
No matter the timeline for the star’s death, the Webb Space Telescope is clearly a handy tool for seeing how this distributor of carbon-rich material delivers its product across space.
The Webb Space Telescope recently took a stunning picture of Wolf-Rayet 140, a binary star system in our galaxy that is encircled by concentric dust rings.
The system resembles the cross-section of a tree, but on a stellar scale, thanks to the dust rings of the stars. A Webb image of the system, which is about 5,000 light-years from Earth, provided evidence for the rings’ existence as well as hints about the possible distribution of elements like carbon throughout the cosmos.
This month, the group of astronomers who studied the Webb images presented their findings at the 245th meeting of the American Astronomical Society, which is currently taking place in National Harbor, Maryland. Their analysis was published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
According to a NASA release, Emma Lieb, a researcher at the University of Denver and the study’s lead author, said, “The telescope not only confirmed that these dust shells are real, its data also showed that the dust shells are moving outward at consistent velocities, revealing visible changes over incredibly short periods of time.”.
The stars known as wolf-rayets are forming supernovae. Despite being larger than the Sun in general, the stars are rapidly losing mass as their lives come to an end. The stars’ material is energetically ejected into space in a dazzling supernova when they finally die. A Wolf-Rayet star, which is about ten times more massive than the Sun, is the only one in WR 140.
Wolf-Rayet stars have previously been imaged by Webb; in 2023, the space observatory obtained a stunning view of WR 124, a star located approximately 15,000 light-years away from Earth and roughly 30 times the mass of the Sun. The central star of WR 124 is emitting streams of gas and dust at a speed of over 93,200 miles per hour (150,000 kilometers per hour).
More than 17 dust shells have been released into space by the star system in the last 130 years. The oldest shells in the system have dissolved to the point where they can no longer be found.
The shells of WR 140 are expanding at a rate of over 1,600 miles per second (2,600 km/s), which is even faster than the gas and dust surrounding WR 124.
This animation illustrates how the two stars at the center of the system interact to create and emit dust shells. When the winds of the stars collide, material is compressed into a dust that is rich in carbon and released into space.
The dust is created once, over a period of months, during each of the stars’ eight-year orbits. Therefore, the tree ring metaphor is extended; each ring in the image below represents a system orbital period.
The two mid-infrared photos above were captured by the Webb Space Telescope in July 2022 (left) and September 2023 (center). The blown-up inset image on the right shows how the dust shells have significantly expanded outward in just 14 months.
Since the dust in this system is relatively cool, mid-infrared observations are absolutely essential for this analysis. In the same statement, Ryan Lau, an astronomer at NSF’s NOIRLab and co-author of the study, stated that only the shells closest to the star would be visible in visible and near-infrared light. The telescope is also helping us to determine the precise time that stars are forming dust, nearly to the day, thanks to these amazing new details. “.”.
The exact time and method of the system’s Wolf-Rayet star’s demise are unknown. The star might collapse into a black hole or go supernova. The surrounding dust shells would not be destroyed if the star became a black hole, but they would be destroyed if the star exploded as a supernova.
Regardless of the star’s demise date, the Webb Space Telescope is undoubtedly a useful instrument for observing how this supplier of carbon-rich material distributes its goods throughout space.